Rohit-led India best England to become World no.1 in T20I rankings after WI whitewash

Riding on a winning spree India clinched series sweep against West Indies which spurred them to become the World no.1 in the T20I rankings on Monday.

With the newly recruited skipper Rohit Sharma at helm, India got the better of Caribbeans by 17 runs in the third an final T20 match in Kolkata as they bagged the series 3-0, followed by a 3-0 ODI series sweep.

The triumph helped India catapult England at the top of the T20 team rankings, with Rohit Sharma's side now matching the top rating of 269.

While England and India both have the same rating across 39 international matches in the rankings period (269), India has a total of 10,484 points, 10 more than England's 10,474.

According to a statement issued by the ICC, Pakistan (rating of 266), New Zealand (255) and South Africa (253) complete the top five list, while Australia (249) remain in sixth after their 4-1 series victory over Sri Lanka.

India were previously No. 1 in the format under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s leadership from February 12, 2016 to May 3, 2016. Their last defeat came in the 2021 T20 World Cup group stage against New Zealand before winning their remaining three matches in the tournament against Afghanistan, Namibia and Scotland.

After Virat Kohli's step-down from captaincy post the World Cup, incumbent skipper Rohit Sharma led India to series clean-sweeps over New Zealand and West Indies - raising the tally to nine consecutive wins in the format.

This was India’s sixth whitewash series win in the shortest format of the game, four of which have come under Rohit Sharma.

In the third T20 match, India were invited to bat first by West Indies. After India's highly touted top order misfired, Suryakumar Yadav and Venkatesh Iyer took Caribbean bowlers to cleaners. The duo hit 91 off 37 balls. Surya scored 65 off 31 balls, including 7 sixes and 1 four. Venkatesh Iyer scored an unbeaten 35 off 19. Surya, Iyer  India reach 184 runs. In reply, West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran scored a brilliant 61 runs. But no other batsman was able to stop at the wicket and score. So they were able to score 167 runs in 20 overs. Hershal Patel took 3 wickets for India. Shardul Thakur, Venkatesh Iyer and Deepak Chahar took two wickets each.